I have just returned from a very successful meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, where exciting updates on myeloma research and treatments were presented.

08.30.05

I have just returned from a very successful meeting in Stockholm, Sweden, where exciting updates on myeloma research and treatments were presented. The 10th Congress of the European Hematology Association was the most attended to date, with almost 5,000 participants from all over the world. Dr. Durie and I saw many of our old friends and colleagues, and met with new people who will clearly be important contributors to the myeloma community. Leaders in myeloma treatment and research from the United States and Canada, Europe, Asia, and South America attended and participated in discussions on the development of new drugs and ways to better utilize old ones. Opinions about myeloma treatment are modified on a constant basis. Without the dialogue and research, many of the new developments currently available would never have been brought to the public.

While in Stockholm, Dr. Durie and I met with Professor Gareth Morgan, co-chair of Bank On A Cure®. Together with our European colleagues, we discussed the IMF’s mission to promote cutting-edge research in myeloma. These discussions were extremely positive and resulted in confirmed commitments to work together on Bank On A Cure, utilizing their expertise and pooling Europe’s clinical data.

Collaborating together internationally fulfills our vision and mission. Over the past 15 years, the IMF has been working worldwide, resulting in offices in the UK, Japan, and Latin America. These offices function under the leadership and guidance of Executive Directors native to those countries, and funding support of these offices is made possible by donations from private individuals and industry within those regions.

With the expansion of the European Union and the growing impact that myeloma is having on its population, it is only natural that we extend our activities there. The IMF will officially open an office on the continent in early autumn. Under the leadership of the IMF’s Executive Director of European Operations, the IMF Europe will focus on providing myriad services to patients, while working with the medical and scientific communities on projects promoting access to care, new drugs, clinical trials, and research projects.

Here’s why this matters to you. Quite simply, working together with researchers and doctors around the world brings you advancements in treatment. Over the past five years research collaboration on an international level has brought concrete results, expanding and expediting clinical trials, making new drugs a part of mainstream treatment strategies in the United States.

I’ve been involved with myeloma since 1988. If you look at the history of myeloma, the progress made over the last five years is truly unprecedented, and our toolbox has never been better stocked. The broad spectrum of new drugs now accessible to myeloma patients would not be available without international collaboration. It’s critical that the IMF continues to foster, support and promote global cooperation.